


To Be Stronger Than an Enderman

by Closeted_Bookworm



Series: Mobpocalypse Tales [2]
Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Post-Apocalypse, Android!Techno, Angst with a Happy Ending, Cyborg!Dream, Family Dynamics, Gen, Road Trips, desert trips really but close enough, this is lighter than the summary makes it seem i promise
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-18
Updated: 2021-02-26
Packaged: 2021-03-13 07:15:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 11,218
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29522823
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Closeted_Bookworm/pseuds/Closeted_Bookworm
Summary: The sight of him, a fully-outfitted battle droid, looming almost five feet over their headsshouldhave scared them. It didn't. To be fair, he was basically Tommy’s brother, but Techno hoped he was at least alittleintimidating. He’d have to be, if he was going to get the party through this journey unscathed.It's moving day for the underground base, and in this world, that's a big deal. Techno's got a great team, but they're human. And humans can get hurt rather easily. It's like carrying a fishbowl through a ball pit.(the first story in the series is helpful to read, but not required)
Relationships: Clay | Dream & Technoblade (Video Blogging RPF), Dream SMP Ensemble & Sleepy Bois Inc., Toby Smith | Tubbo & TommyInnit, Toby Smith | Tubbo & TommyInnit & Phil Watson
Series: Mobpocalypse Tales [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2168805
Comments: 13
Kudos: 40





	1. The Exodus

**Author's Note:**

> This literally started as a note on my homework that said "What if Techno yeeted a creeper" and has evolved beyond recognition so make of that what you will.
> 
> If you haven't read the other one shot in this series, basically all you need to know is the Blood God is a robot and he's got a broken AI making snarky comments in his head, and right now everyone is living underground because the outside world is not so friendly. 
> 
> Enjoy :)
> 
> Thanks to [Random_Chaos](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Random_Chaos) for beta reading!
> 
> 2/23 edit: Bumped rating to teen bc of robot violence and the chapter count to three. Guess who's spiraled into a longer work again?

It was a Tuesday, and the normally calm base was a hive of excited activity. Everyone was buzzing about in a flurry of urgent meetings and tasks, hammering out the last logistics of their imminent departure. A few weeks ago, a young outrider had brought news of a larger base to the east, and the plans to move had just been finalized. 

Techno, their best resident warrior, had been placed in charge of the defense detail, and was subsequently tasked with ensuring the safe transfer of over five dozen people across 50 miles of barren, monster infested desert. That number included a just under a dozen warriors and scouts, about as many people who were decently competent with a blaster, several beginners, and a vast majority who weren’t allowed to hold a gun for fear they would shoot themselves in the foot. 

This left Techno scrambling for a transport plan that would keep everyone safe without stretching his resources until they broke. He didn’t have enough people to protect a group that large for that long. Someone like Phil could certainly handle his own in a battle and had the endurance of an ox, but he wasn’t infallible and Techno couldn’t ask anyone to travel for two days straight on high alert with no breaks. 

So he turned to the next best solution, making two separate trips. It meant tripling the time taken, but it would be worth the sacrifice for the additional security. In the hostile wasteland, a smaller group was a safer group. Less targets, less noise, less light, less guards needed. He carefully divided the base into two parties, keeping families together but also trying to put an equal amount of firearms experience on both sides. 

He talked with his crew of more seasoned warriors and ended up assigning all of them to both groups, with one return trip in the middle. They had one new face among them, Tubbo, the outrider who’d come from the larger base they were heading for. He was only a teen, but he piloted his junk metal speeder better than most of the adults could handle a proper jet bike. Techno didn’t hesitate to assign him to make both trips, and the other veterans trusted his judgement enough to keep grumbling to a minimum. 

The whole thing entailed way more complex strategies than he was used to implementing, and yet he found himself well suited to it. He was still running around like a pig with a pin stuck in his behind, but it was always with a purpose. He had everything meticulously organized and categorized neatly in his hard drive, his schedule planned down to the minute as he raced to get everything ready by the date set for the migration. 

He’d taken to charging himself with a portable generator on the go instead of powering down every night, which increased his productivity by about 30% but also had the unfortunate effect of periodic fits of disorientation, similar to sleep deprivation in his human companions. After nearly a week of this behavior, Phil caught him during one of his dizzy spells and made him lie down for a proper charge. Techno would never admit it, but it felt amazing waking up after his first clean restart in too long. 

Phil had also helped him clean up his battle enhancers, which he hadn’t used since he first came to the base. The four foot limb extensions were intended for use in military maneuvers, but he’d never been sent out in a battle against humans before. He’d only fought the mutated monsters that roamed the desert after the bombs destroyed most of civilization, and the weaponized limbs adapted to that just fine. 

Tommy and Tubbo accidentally walked in on him during his first time with the enhancers back on, and the sight of him looming almost five feet over their heads _should_ have scared them. It didn’t, they were too fearless (or arguably stupid) to be wary about a fully-outfitted battle droid. To be fair, he was basically Tommy’s brother, but Techno hoped he was at least a _little_ intimidating. He’d have to be, if he was going to get both parties through this journey unscathed. 

He finally finished inventory and preparations with 36 hours left to spare before departure, enough time for a nice long charge and an exhaustive briefing from anyone in charge of anything related to leaving. Dream, who was one of the veteran survivalists, was responsible for transporting the majority of their perishable supplies such as the plants from the greenhouse and rations. His friends George and Sapnap were overseeing the packing of less delicate items like furniture and assigning people to drive the supply wagons, and BadBoyHalo, the cartographer, had roped his roommate Skeppy into working on mapping the route with him. 

The track they were planning on following would take almost 20 hours to traverse nonstop, since they had to add an hour or two to detour around a ravine. They were going to camp for the night in an open plain dubbed “Bumblebee Flats” by Tubbo, who informed them that it was largely uninhabited by most types of monsters and that no, he did not have a particular reason for naming it after a type of animal that now only existed in a dangerously altered form. He just liked bees. 

Tubbo, even though he’d had his hands full furnishing Bad and Skeppy with the geographical knowledge they needed to make maps of the surrounding area and telling Dream and Techno everything he knew about the fort, had settled wonderfully easily into their little society. He and Tommy had hit it off right away and the pair would often be heard sprinting down the hallways, loudly shouting well-meant abuse at each other. Phil thought it was cute. Wilbur thought it was a disaster in the making. Techno thought they were a headache, but he was content to let them run wild as long as they didn’t drag him into anything. 

The morning they were leaving with the first group, Phil helped Techno hook himself into his battle enhancements, connecting his main power supply to the larger battery and making sure everything was securely anchored to his regular limbs. Last to go on was his helmet, a spherical piece of one-way bulletproof glass that he didn’t like much because people couldn’t see his face, but would do wonders for his vision in the desert sandstorms and protect his more fragile features (read: brain and hair, both irreplaceable) from projectiles. 

With everything in place, he couldn’t stand fully upright anywhere except the cafeteria and the speeder garage, both of which had twelve foot ceilings. He was attracting strange looks like sugar attracted ants, most of which disappeared after a glance from Phil but made him uncomfortable nonetheless. 

He’d long ago made peace with the fact he was a battle droid, designed for war and given sentience by some freak piece of unknown programming, but wearing his old helmet made him feel like a nameless weapon again. He didn’t like it, but there were bigger priorities at the moment than his mild discomfort, so he didn’t complain. 

He met up with the other leaders and veterans in the garage, where most of the people armed with blasters had already revved up their speeders and the ones who hadn’t were helping civilians into blast protective suits and directing them to traveling groups. He proudly surveyed his elite team, glad he had such strong people to depend on. 

There was Phil tightening a bolt on Tubbo’s speeder, Fundy telling a group of younger kids to stay far away from any holes they saw in the ground, Eret helping Skeppy and Sapnap load the last of the trees into the mobile greenhouse with Dream’s close supervision, and Schlatt gruffly correcting a less experienced fighter’s grip on his blaster. Antfrost was securing a load on the back of a midsize jet bike, George was tightening the straps on another man’s pack, Niki was cleaning her long-range blaster, and Bad was helping a young mother into the back of a wagon with her baby. 

Wilbur and Tommy were also coming with this first group, though only Wilbur had been assigned a weapon. Tommy had started shooting just a few weeks ago, and while he could definitely hit the side of a barn if given adequate time, a blaster in his hands was not a risk Phil felt was justified since they were in limited supply. Tommy had spent a week grumpily complaining to everyone who would listen (and quite a few who wouldn’t) that he should’ve been given one.

He had finally perked up when Tubbo offered to let him ride along on his speeder. They’d gotten the okay to pair off for scout work since Tubbo had a blaster of his own (guess who was bitter about that), and they were going to ride a few minutes ahead of the main caravan along with fellow scout and pilot Eret to make sure the way ahead was clear of monsters. They were equipped with a radio transmitting to Techno’s helmet if they ran into any trouble. 

This whole expedition was a stupendously dramatic production, Techno observed with a grin. You’d think they were going 200 miles instead of 50 with the wagon train they had going on. 

_~~Gee, who’s fault was all the pomp and circumstance~~ ,_ his broken AI snidely commented. 

_Eh, shut up_ , Techno chastised with a shrug. _Better safe than sorry._

After an hour of stalling, most of which was spent trying to get everyone into a semi-organized walking order so they could keep track of the whole party, they finally were ready to go. They put about half the people in full blast suits before they ran out, and the people left over went into the wagons, dust shields over their faces and canopies sealed on all sides. The youngest children, too small to fit into the suits, were traveling in a repurposed mobile greenhouse with a few mothers for supervision and an air seal to keep the grit out of their developing lungs. 

Almost every member of his elite team was mounted on a speeder or jet bike, Bad and Skeppy on a two-seater at the front to navigate and Dream and Techno bringing up the rear. They were the only ones besides the civilians not on a vehicle. Techno was now too big for anything they had in the garage, and Dream had been working night and day to make a personal jetpack, which he’d completed two weeks before departure and insisted on using for the trip. 

They certainly made an interesting pair. Dream, who’d almost died in one of the original bombings half a year ago, had both legs, his left arm, an ear, and one eye replaced with mechanical prosthetics. After his recovery, he spent much of his time at the base upgrading himself, and now he was easily on par with Techno as far as physical abilities were concerned. Both of them could keep up with the speeders if necessary, though it probably wouldn’t be needed until the return trip since the caravan wouldn’t be moving especially fast. 

With everyone ready, Phil gave the okay to leave. Tubbo pulled his speeder up to the exit and Tommy reached over and punched in the code. The huge doors opened with the grating screech of rusting metal, and the whole party winced at the painful noise. 

Tommy, the notable exception to this reaction, whooped with joy as Tubbo gunned it out into the desert, Eret peeling out after them with an eye roll as the hovercraft disappeared into the dust. 

Techno pressed his intercom button to connect with their helmets. “Just go a few minutes ahead, okay? We’re goin’ much slower than you are.”

“No problem!” Tubbo’s voice crackled through his speakers. 

“I’ll keep an eye on them,” Eret reassured him. 

_~~Alone and unprotected…~~ _

_They have Eret, they’re safe,_ he rebuked. 

“All right, here we go!” Phil called from the head of the group. “Everyone stay close and keep track of your family members. If you see anything moving, report it to someone on a speeder immediately.”

The wagons lurched into the air, long-suffering hover tech laboriously shoving them a foot off the ground as they started forward. The considerably more lightweight jet bikes and speeders powered up with a sound similar to an entire hive of bees taking flight all at once, lifting gracefully off the ground as their riders tucked their feet into the sides. The party ventured out into the wasteland, the doors closing behind them with a resonant _thunk_ and an air of grim finality. 

It was still early in the morning, the sun low on the horizon and the air cool from the fading night. They eased into travel, settling into a slow and easy pace that the people on foot would be able to maintain for the day. Dream was also walking for the time being, conserving the power in his pack for later. 

“How’re the enhancers working?” he asked, tilting his head back to look up at Techno’s helmeted head several feet above him. 

_~~You hate them, don’t you? Bad memories, black blood, machine oil…~~ _

_Shut up, they’re fine,_ he disparaged. 

“They’re okay, gonna take some gettin’ used to though,” he replied out loud, flexing the reinforced, elongated fingers on one hand. His thick clawed feet stirred up the loose dirt below his feet with every step. The new range of motion and reach the upgrades provided felt unnatural after months of using his default height, but he enjoyed the increased power humming in his core. The enhancers’ battery would last for the whole two days as long as he wasn’t doing anything too strenuous. 

“How’d the jetpack turn out?” he asked in return. 

Dream smiled proudly, electronic eye literally lighting up in excitement. “Excellent. I haven’t been able to practice much outside yet since I just finished dust-proofing a week ago, but it handles better than Sapnap’s tricked-out jet bike and the last time I flew I topped out at forty miles an hour.”

_~~A monster could swat him out of the air in an instant.~~ _

“How’s its agility? That’s the most important thing in combat.”

“Better than I could’ve hoped for. It turns almost on a dime.”

“Awesome.”

“I can’t wait to blast something into pieces from 10 feet over its head.”

 _ ~~Now that’s something I can get behind,~~_ the AI in Techno’s head agreed.

“Hopefully you won’t need to. We want to avoid a battle,” Techno reminded him. 

“Oh, of course. I’m just saying that I haven’t fought anything in two months and I still haven’t gotten my revenge for the new scar on George’s arm.”

“He tripped and gashed it open on a rock,” Techno scoffed. _~~Stupid oaf,~~_ the voice contributed. _Only I get to insult my friends,_ he reprimanded. 

“And we still don’t know which rock it was. I’m settling for general revenge on all things hostile,” Dream declared.

“Fair enough,” he conceded, a smile evident in his tone. 

They fell into a comfortable silence, absorbing the quiet voices of those walking in front of them and the whispering of the wind whirling through the clouds of sand behind them. Every fifteen minutes Eret would check in via the radio, and Techno would shoot Phil a thumbs up to let him know they were fine. 

They walked for hours without incident, the only drama being a brief ruckus caused by a poorly-secured chair crashing to the ground off the bike it was tied to. They left it behind with a laugh, the owner proclaiming it had been on its way out anyway and one of the legs always wobbled. There were no monster sightings.

They made their first stop at noon, the sun bright enough overhead to make a solid attempt at boiling their heads like eggs inside their helmets. They pitched their food tent and ate a few people at a time so that everyone could experience the luxury of a dust-free lunch in the shade, even if the fare itself was mediocre at best. 

Techno didn’t need to eat (plus his fingers wouldn’t have let him anyway), but he did take the chance to practice running using his longer legs, enjoying the massive amount of ground he could cover in a single leap. He loped in a loose circle around the caravan, peering off into the swirling clouds in search of monsters who might take the chance to attack while they were stationary

Halfway through their break, Tubbo, Tommy, and Eret coasted into camp to grab a meal for themselves, the two boys dismounting from the bike laughing and giggling together and Eret plodding exhaustedly along behind them. Techno walked over and joined him in the food line.

“How’re things goin’?” he asked, taking in how his friend’s hair was plastered to his forehead with sweat and the lack of color in his cheeks. 

_~~Ghost boy, one wrong move and he’ll collapse,~~_ the AI sneered. Techno shook his head, like he was shaking off a fly. 

“Never a dull moment with those two,” Eret joked in response. “I’m out of practice. I used to be able to travel like this for days, but I feel ready to drop already.”

“Is the coolin’ system in your suit workin’ properly?” Techno worriedly wondered. 

“I’m pretty sure it needs a new fan or something,” he answered. “The air coming in is clean, but it’s certainly warm.”

“Let’s find someone to switch with you, and we can try and make some more room in one of the wagons for another person-”

“No, you don’t have to. It’s not that bad. I know you need someone out there with the boys. Nobody else can keep up with them.” He winked and inclined his head to the left, where Techno saw the pair laughing hysterically and running from a red-faced Fundy, a stolen nature guide tucked under Tommy’s arm. Techno smirked and pressed his intercom button.

“Tubbo, I’ll carry you on my shoulders for ten minutes if you can get that book back to Fundy.”

_~~Such a good commander, sowing hilarious dissent among the troops.~~ _

Tubbo immediately turned on his friend, tackling him to the ground as he shouted in surprise. The book skidded across the ground and Fundy dashed after it, scooping it up and running back to his jet bike. He sent a dirty look towards the tussling teenagers, carefully stowing the guide in the bike’s storage compartment. 

Techno walked over to his brother and friend and scooped them both up as Eret watched in amusement, depositing Tubbo on his shoulders and holding Tommy at arms length like a cat caught by the scruff of his neck. He kicked and yelled abuse, punching uselessly at the metal limb as Tubbo nearly fell off Techno’s back from laughing so hard. 

“Favoritism!” Tommy accused, still trying to get free. “You’re my brother, you’re supposed to be on my side!” He waved frantically at Sapnap, who was patrolling the border of camp on his speeder. “Help a guy out!”

“You’re not getting anything from me,” Sapnap chortled, clearly enjoying the sight. “Remember that prank you pulled on me last month?”

“Aw, c’mon, all you had to do was change your sheets and you’d never know it happened.”

“I hold grudges. You’re on your own.”

“If I set you down, what are you goin’ to do?” Techno asked curiously as Tubbo leaned on the side of his head with a humongous grin on his face.

“Tear off your leg and bash your brains in with it.”

 _ ~~Kid’s got taste,~~_ the AI remarked.

“I think that you’re goin’ to go get in line for lunch and stop tormentin’ poor Fundy.”

Tommy angrily crossed his arms, face bright red and hair mussed. “Never.”

“If you’d prefer to go hungry all afternoon I could always tie you to the back of Eret’s speeder.”

 _ ~~Ooh, good one,~~_ the voice contributed.

“You wouldn’t,” Tommy blustered. 

“Tubbo, do you know which wagon the tow ropes are in?”

“I’ve got one in my speeder already,” he said with relish.

“Fine,” Tommy growled. “I won’t completely obliterate you like I’m totally capable of doing. Now put me down.”

Instead, Techno put his brother up on his other shoulder, so now he had two teenagers clinging to his back like limpets. He lumbered over to Eret and dumped the pair at his feet, cracking a smile as Tommy landed one last punch on his helmet and immediately yelped in pain, the cold glass unforgiving against his knuckles. 

“See you guys in a bit, I’m off to do another lap around the area,” he told them as Tommy and Tubbo immediately started bickering and Eret shook his head in resignation. Never a dull moment was definitely one way of putting it.

* * *

After another two hours on the road, the monsters still hadn’t made an appearance, and it was starting to weird Techno out. Usually it took less than an hour for at least _something_ to find him out in the wastelands, but they had yet to encounter anything. He wondered if they were intimidated by the large group, but his gut told him that wasn’t the case. They’d never cared about numbers in the past.

 _ ~~Scaredy-cat,~~_ the AI teased. He ignored it, turning to Dream

“It’s too quiet,” he confided to his traveling companion.. 

The other man shrugged, glancing at the vast expanse of desert around them. “I’m just counting our blessings. Like you said, we don’t _want_ to fight anything.”

“I don’t trust it. I’m not used to it being peaceful out here.”

“You can do another patrol circle if you want.”

“I’ll do it after Eret’s next message, he should radio in soon.” He checked his internal clock. Only a few seconds left, actually.

He waited. The minute turned over and the clock kept ticking, but his radio remained silent. He pressed the intercom. 

“You guys all right over there?”

Silence.

He stopped dead on the trail, listening with bated breath. Dream paused a few steps in front of him, looking back in confusion.

_~~They’re dead, all dead, never see them again, better break down and cry, baby.~~ _

_Shut UP!_ Techno mentally shouted. He jabbed the button again. 

“Eret? Tommy? Tubbo? Can you hear me?”

There was a crackle of static from the other end, and a snatch of broken shouting cut through the glitching. He couldn’t tell who it was. 

“Guys?” he yelled. 

Another burst of static, and Tommy’s panicked voice broke through to his speakers. “-uck! Too many, help! Eret is-” The radio shut off again. 

Techno’s stomach dropped like a bowling ball. “They’re in trouble. Tell Phil where I’m goin’,” he called to Dream, breaking into a run. He didn’t wait for a response, picking up speed as he tore past the rest of the very confused caravan and one mildly concerned father figure. 

He pushed himself to run faster and faster, head swiveling back and forth as he searched for the scouting party. The dust swirled and pounded on his limbs like a constant headache, fighting to keep him from making progress. The visibility was terrible, he’d long lost sight of the caravan behind him and he doubted he could see thirty yards in any direction. 

_~~All gone, crashed, mauled, dead…~~ _

A faint sound reached his ears, and his head immediately shot to the right, homing in on the noise like a hawk in the throes of a hunt. He switched directions and sprinted toward the sound. It was growing louder with every passing second, and soon he picked out high pitched shrieking that could only be one person. He’d heard it too many times in the base to not recognize it. He pushed himself even harder, coaxing every ounce of momentum out of his protesting legs. 

The faint outline of a tall sand dune came into view, then a thin column of smoke trailing into the sky from a large depression at the base of it that he couldn’t see into. The first monsters came into view a moment later, a pair of mutated spiders that scuttled over the top of the dune and raced down into the pit with unearthly wails.

Techno would probably never get used to the sight of the horrifying creatures. The massive arachnids were four feet high and twice as long, with bodies covered in matted black hair, legs studded with wickedly sharp barbs, and eight beady red eyes that looked in every direction at once. They attacked anything that moved and didn’t stop until it was a gorey smudge smeared through the dirt.

He rapidly flicked the switch on his arm that triggered the activation of his weapons, brow furrowing in discomfort as the joints and parts in his arms rearranged themselves. In just a few seconds, his left arm had converted into a high-powered blaster, while his right had shifted into a formidable broadsword. His back erupted with spines and he lost a few inches of height, almost stumbling as his leg and chest plates contracted into sturdier armored protection. 

He charged over the crest of the hill, taking in the scene below him. The smoke was from a smashed bike, wrecked in a heap at the base of the dune with one of nine spiders snarling ferociously from the top of it. Tubbo was zipping around the ditch on his own speeder, firing shots from his blaster into any monster he could get in his sights. 

Tommy was on the ground standing over the unconscious form of Eret, the motionless man’s gun in hand and pumping blasts in any direction far enough from his friends that they wouldn't get caught in the crossfire. Two spiders already lay dead, wounds peppering their bodies like buckshot. The rest of creatures were gradually converging on the two stationary figures, despite Tubbo’s best efforts to draw their attention to himself. 

Techno leapt into action, jumping down into the pit and driving his sword deep into the abdomen of an unsuspecting arachnid. He wrenched it out with a grunt as the thing squealed in agony and turned on him, but he blasted it in the face before it could attack. One down.

Tubbo hollered in triumph and relief as he fired another shot into the side of a second spider, Tommy immediately starting to shout vulgar but highly motivating encouragement to him. The monsters, realizing the imminent danger, started pressing closer to Tommy and Eret. Techno barreled into the group and impaled the head of the one he’d shot, firing rapidly into the cluster to his left. Another one keeled over, and a second stumbled to the side, three of its legs blown clean off. It fell to a smattering of shots from Tubbo, swinging by on another pass from his speeder. 

Techno burst through their shrinking circle in a slashing whirlwind of metal, planting himself beside his brother just as the nearest monster lunged for him in a fury. Techno darted to the side and braced himself, feet sliding back an inch as the spider, unable to stop in time, impaled itself on his blade. The heavy weight dragged his weapon to the ground as he struggled to free it, Tommy finishing the still-struggling spider with a few scattered blasts to the head. 

Techno glanced backwards and barely managed to get loose in time to throw himself bodily onto another monster like a juggernaut, interrupting its attempt to sneak up on him from behind. The spikes on his back plunged deep into the creature’s flesh, eliciting an agonized scream of pain as it dropped to the ground and rolled, trying to dislodge him. He followed through the roll and stood up with a forceful push as his feet hit the ground, then crushed the spider beneath his body weight for a second time. Its scream of anguish petered out as its head was crushed under his back.

He heaved himself to his feet, spikes coming free from the corpse of the monster with a wet squelching noise as he zeroed in on the three remaining enemies. He made his choice of target as another one stormed towards Tommy, nailing it between the eyes with a blaster pulse. He rushed forward and ran it through with his sword for good measure as Tommy beamed, awe mixing in with the fear on his face. 

The last two spiders hissed in warning, one flinching to the side as Tubbo fired into its hide. Techno pounced, slashing at the eyes of the one on the right and shooting the one on the left point blank. It tumbled to the ground, four leg joints mangled past usage as the other one howled and leapt at him in a literally blind rage. 

It slammed into his chest and nearly eight hundred pounds of monster smashed him into the ground, pinning him in place as his armor groaned in protest against the pressure. His blaster arm was trapped and close to cracking, his sword crushed against his chestplate. He cried out in pain and aggravation, fighting to push the deadweight off of him.

“Look out!” Tubbo shouted, and Techno glanced backwards to see another pair of spiders crawling over the hill. There must be a nest on the other side. He strained against the monster trapping him, desperate to get back up before they could reach his friends. 

A low roar reached his ears, and a familiar voice rang out, “Looks like I’ve walked into a pretty nightmarish situation.”

“Dream!” Tommy called, waving frantically. 

“Get this off me!” Techno yelled. “No time for one liners!” 

The droning came closer, and Dream flew into his field of vision, held aloft by his jetpack and a blaster in each hand. He buried four shots into the twitching spider and holstered his weapons, backing up so he could gain some momentum before zooming forward and throwing his shoulder into the mass of black hair. Techno pushed upwards at the same time, and the now-dead body of the spider gave up its prey, flipping over onto its back as Techno scrambled to his feet and gave himself a fast once-over. 

He may have cracked a plate or two, and the spikes on his back had likely dulled, but nothing major was broken. Good. He nodded in thanks to Dream and threw himself back into the fight, joining his younger brother in firing at the two new threats as they dashed over the wreckage of the speeder and raced closer. 

“They’ll just keep coming if that’s a nest, we need to get out of here,” Dream exclaimed as he dive bombed one of the creatures and sank three shots into its skull, downing it. 

“Agreed,” Techno shouted back. “Tommy, get back on Tubbo’s speeder and book it to the caravan. Dream, give him coords. Can your jetpack support Eret’s weight?”

“No, it’ll wreck the stabilizers. Tubbo, punch these in.” He rattled off the location of the group. “Can he ride on the working speeder?”

“No good, too heavy with three of us,” Tubbo called. 

“Change of plans. Dream, get Eret secured on the speeder and follow them back to the group. Tommy’s ridin’ back with me.” Techno fired one last shot into the remaining spider, killing it, and flicked another switch on his arm. The spikes on his back retracted with a squeal of metal. Definitely bent. He looked up to see three more of the miserable monsters swarming over the crest of the dune. They had forty seconds, max, before the spiders reached them. 

Dream swooped down and tripped into a landing, grabbing Eret under the arms as Tubbo looped around and stopped in front of them. Techno took his unconscious friend’s legs and they sat him down on the speeder, locking his arms with one of Tubbo’s so that he would stay upright. The taller man completely dwarfed the teen. 

“You’ve got a tow rope?” Dream asked. Tubbo nodded. “Good. Get out of danger, stop, and I’ll help you tie him a seatbelt. Don’t forget to hold onto him. Go!”

Tubbo didn’t wait another second, sinking his foot into the gas pedal and tearing off into the desert with his passenger. Dream fired up his jetpack, streaking after him in a blur of brown and green.

“Hurry, get on,” Techno told Tommy, kneeling down and gesturing to his back with his sword arm. Tommy, for once not arguing about the indignities of ‘piggy-back-rides,’ clipped his blaster to his belt and clambered onto the wide metal shoulders, curling his lip as black monster blood from the spider-squishing stained the front of his shirt. He wrapped his arms around his brother's neck and his legs around his torso, rapping twice on his helmet to give him the okay to move. 

Techno lurched into a jog, clomping clumsily up the steep side of the sand pit as the spiders came ever closer. He cleared the edge and got onto firmer ground with the attackers only a yard behind him. With the dirt solid under his feet, he started building more speed, but it was difficult to accelerate with a lanky teenager clinging to his back.

He veered a bit to the left of where Tubbo and Dream had gone, making sure the spiders would follow him and eliminating the risk of running into them while they were helping Eret. Even carrying Tommy, he could still outrun them with ease, and within two minutes the last monster had disappeared into the dust clouds behind them. 

The AI broke into his thoughts. _~~Shouldn’t have split up, Eret could be dying right now. Stupid to leave them.~~_

 _No, it wasn’t,_ he argued. He slowed to a comfortable trot and pressed his intercom. “Tubbo, did you guys make it out all right?”

“Yeah, we did,” came the enthusiastic response. “And we didn’t need the seatbelt after all!”

_~~Lucky break. Won’t happen next time.~~ _

Another mike clicked on. “Hey,” Eret croaked raggedly. “I heard I passed out and crashed.”

“Eyyy!” Tommy cheered. “You really had me worried there, man.”

“Are you okay?” Techno asked.

_~~Long term damage, he’ll never walk again…~~ _

“My head hurts like crazy, I’m as dizzy as a top, my rib cage is bruised to hell and back, and I might have a broken arm. I’ve been better. Oh, and my suit tore, so there’s dust everywhere. But I have not been eaten by a spider, so that’s good.” His throat sounded rough and scratched. 

_See, he’s fine,_ Techno thought. _He’ll heal._

_~~This time.~~ _

“What happened?” he questioned.

“I don’t know, I was just driving, feeling kind of tired and achy, then my vision started going spotty and the next thing I know I’m waking up on my back with these two standing over me looking like I’ve just become a zombie.” He paused. “Dream says to tell you it was probably heat exhaustion.”

“The symptoms sound about right. Next time we travel you’re drinking twice as much water and we’re gettin’ you a suit with a proper coolin’ system.”

He laughed ruefully. “Sounds great. See you back at the caravan?”

“See you there.”

“Bye!” Tommy and Tubbo chimed in at the same time. 

Techno smiled in relief, flicking the switch that would relax the rest of his battle modifications and chuckling at Tommy’s exclamation of surprise. He was glad to get his fingers back and put the whole ordeal behind them. 

_~~Keep your weapons handy, this is still a dangerous desert.~~ _


	2. The Gloaming

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quick disclaimer: I’m not a mechanic or a programmer, so sorry for any inaccuracies! 
> 
> Thanks again to my lovely beta reader [ Random_Chaos](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Random_Chaos) :)

Phil swept them up in an anxious fatherly tornado the moment they reunited with the group, alternating between berating Techno for running off without backup and mother-henning the living daylights out of him and everyone else in the scouting party. Eret was quickly transferred into one of the wagons, where George, the most medically skilled of everyone there, set about patching him up. 

Skeppy and Dream, the two most capable mechanics in the group, did their best to examine Techno’s damages as they walked. From what they could determine and what Techno himself could discern, the spikes on his back were dented but easily repaired, but he also had a large crack spider-webbing down from the upper corner of his main chest plate. It would need to be addressed as soon as possible, but they couldn’t fix it out in the desert. They’d need welding tools or possibly even a new plate altogether. 

For the time being, they simply told him to avoid getting crushed by anything else large for the foreseeable future. He laughed and told them he wasn’t planning on indulging in anything of the sort. Luckily, the injuries weren’t really uncomfortable as long as he kept his spikes retracted. 

If anything, the most unpleasant part of the aftermath from the fight was the monster blood splattering his armor, especially on his back. The oily black liquid dried into a tacky coating that collected dust better than duct tape ever could, leaving him looking like an odd sand creature who rolled in the dirt for camouflage. Unfortunately, since water was a limited resource, he wouldn’t be able to clean it off until they got to the new base.

Aside from his new gritty covering, he was feeling pretty darn great. Killing eleven spiders with limited help while also defending a stationary target was impressive, even by his own high standards. On the list of twenty-one types of monsters people had identified, spiders were ranked sixth hardest to defeat and fourth heaviest in weight, so he was justified in feeling proud of himself. 

_~~Aren’t you glad we didn’t run into a you-know-what?~~_ the AI teased meanly. He mentally flinched. He knew exactly what monster it was referring to, and it would’ve spelled the end for the scouting party if one had attacked. To those creatures, a grounded target was a dead target. 

Thankfully, they were rare. Techno had only encountered one in his lifetime. With luck, they’d make all three trips between the bases without even seeing it. That didn’t stop him from intensifying his search of the horizon. Fortune was a fickle mistress. 

_~~Murphy’s Law, Technoblade.~~ _

* * *

The caravan traveled uninterrupted all the way until sunset, when they arrived at Bumblebee Flats and stopped for the night. Even with Tubbo’s reassurance that the moniker was not reflective of the residents, Fundy and Phil reminded everyone to stay far away from any holes in the ground that might house a hive. 

Techno, exhausted even though his battery was over half full, wasn’t sure whether to sigh in relief or curl up into a nervous ball. The scouting group (now joined by Antfrost instead of Eret) had reported sightings of both a mutated wolf pack and a pair of skeletons which they gave a wide berth, but the main party hadn’t seen a single monster. It was unnatural. _Something_ should’ve found them by now. Even Sapnap, normally the most laid-back of all of them, was glancing nervously over his shoulder every few minutes, feeling like they were cheating fate.

They parked the wagons in a circle and pitched the large tents they’d brought in the center, everyone who’d been on foot laying out their bedrolls inside around the portable heaters and wagon passengers converting the floors into sleeping spaces before joining the others in the tents for dinner. The jet bikes were powered down and plugged into the purring generators for the night, and Techno joined them for a half hour, making sure he’d have more than enough power to get through the night and the following day.

The desert around him was cooling fast and darkening even faster. The wagons were silent and shady, the bright glow from the hover pads on the underside gone for the night, and the tents were fully opaque, trapping all light and limiting their chances of being seen by monsters once the sun dipped below the horizon.

For now, though, the clouds of swirling dust were dim and greyish-blue, not fully transitioned into the impenetrable blackness that made the night so dangerous. Twilight during the apocalypse was mysterious and full of intrigue, layered with uncertainty and tricky shadows. If not for the looming threat of attack, it would be a bewitchingly beautiful sight. 

He leaned back on his hands and let his eyes roam slowly where they pleased, picking out irregularities in the dusk. Once, a soft, far off glow that must’ve come from a passing blaze crossed his field of view, but it quickly disappeared, the monster unaware of their camp less than a hundred yards from its path. 

He still didn’t trust the peace. The dread hung over his head in an uneasy cloud, making it impossible for him to fully relax. After his battery reached two thirds of its capacity, he unplugged himself and stood up with a shiver, deciding to patrol in a loop around camp like he’d done at lunchtime. He reported his departure to Schlatt, one of the four people with first shift for guard duty, and jogged off into the night. 

He ran until he was around twenty five yards from camp, just out of the visible range for the guards, then switched directions and started tracing a wide circle. The only sound around him was the ever-present whisper of the wind, tickling his ears like television static. Some of the flying dust wormed its way in through the crack on his chest, grating oddly in his gears. 

Soon he loosened up and settled into the comfortable pace, letting the sound of the wind blur in his sensors until he barely even noticed it. The pound of his feet on the packed dirt was grounding and comforting, letting him release some of the paranoia haunting him. 

He veered a bit to the side and started the back half of his lazy circle, mentally mapping where he was in relation to the camp as he went. The light around him was all but gone, the caravan to his far left nothing but a vague suggestion of a lump rising from the ground and the billowing dust storm around him a haze of navy. 

He wished he could see the stars. He remembered them being wonderful, before the bombs fell and kicked so much debris into the atmosphere they were left with nothing but a veil of dirt obscuring everything above them. He called up the few memories he had of a clear night sky, looking up and wondering if the same constellations still shone.

He was startled out of his reflection by a foreign noise, breaking the breezy monotony and scaring him to a standstill. He strained his ears, listening with all his might. The noise sounded familiar, and he was desperately hoping his mind was deceiving him.

_~~When have you ever been that lucky?~~ _

There it was again. A subtle gurgle, except it sounded like someone had run it through the dishwasher with too much soap and shook it out to dry. It was _far_ too close for comfort, in front of him and to the right. He slowly turned towards it, knowing what he was going to see but hoping against hope that it wouldn’t be there. 

He squinted into the dark, finally making out the lumbering shape of his worst fear. It was still maybe fifteen yards away, the glow of its luminous purple eyes barely visible but clear enough to send his emotions up in a panicked spike. 

An Enderman. Number _one_ on the list of most dangerous mutated animals. 

The monster was almost sixteen feet tall and weighed almost four times what he did, oversized arms swinging lazily back and forth as it methodically placed one colossal foot in front of the other. Its bulky hands were balled into fists, each one the size of a basketball. The dust was too thick to let him see details, but he knew that it would have greasy black skin the same color as its blood, flakes continually shedding from dry areas and igniting with a purple fire as they fell to the ground. 

It wasn’t looking at him. He knew it could see him, because Endermen had thermal vision and weren’t impeded by the blinding dust, but it probably didn’t care about his presence yet. He didn’t have a human heat signature and wouldn’t register as a threat. It probably thought he was another mutated animal. It was the apex predator and other monsters avoided it like the plague, so he would be expected to do the same.

He held in a gasp. This was why nothing had attacked them. This creature had probably been following them all day. Which meant that it was currently stalking the camp, now that less people were on guard and it could move in the cover of darkness. 

He slowly started backing away, watching it ponderously plod towards the circle of wagons in the distance. He had to do something. Right now, there was no risk of him aggravating the monster, since he didn’t give off human heat and had his eyes hidden behind his helmet. The lookouts around the camp had no such protection. If one of them made eye contact with it, it would become enraged, and if they didn’t, it would decimate the camp anyway.

He studied his options. The first one, circling back around to the campsite and defending it from the front, wasn’t looking great. There would be guaranteed casualties if he let the Enderman get anywhere near the main group. 

The second, telling everyone to pack up and move out immediately, was impossible. The jet bikes were on low battery and the wagons would take at least twenty minutes to get started. Plus, this thing had been following them all day. It would have no problem continuing to do so. 

The third was unattractive and terrifying as all get-out, but he decided that it’s what he’d have to do. He could irritate it, declare himself as a threat, and lead it away from the camp while calling for backup so they could try and kill it. It would keep the monster away from people who couldn’t run or defend themselves. His chances of winning this fight on his own were next to zero, but if he could get his team out here to help him, they would stand a chance. 

The Enderman was about thirty yards from the main party, he only had a few minutes to form a plan. And that was assuming it didn’t start using whatever teleportation energy it had to its name. The one he’d fought during his time as a battle droid could travel eight feet at a time, about once every ten seconds, but Fundy’s research on other people’s encounters suggested that the ability’s limitations varied by specimen. 

He pressed his intercom button. One of the scout group members better have their blast suit on still. He should’ve salvaged the radio from Eret’s ripped suit and given it to Antfrost, he was one of the people on guard duty right now.

“This is Techno, come in,” he whispered. Endermen didn’t have great hearing, but he was taking no chances.

_~~You should scream.~~ _

_Look, if I die, you do too._

“Tommy, Tubbo, are you there?” he hissed. “It’s urgent, come in,” 

Tommy’s voice blared into his helmet. “What’s up, Blade?” 

He flinched in surprise. “I need you to go get Phil _right now_. I’m not in immediate danger, but it’s life or death.”

A nervous twang entered his brother’s tone, and he heard him start to run. “What’s wrong?”

“Phil first, then I’ll explain. If he’s with anyone not on the elite team, get him alone. Other veterans are fine.”

_~~Cry for help, baby. Lead them to their deaths.~~ _

He ignored the voice.

A few, very tense seconds later, the mike clicked back on. “Phil here, Tommy gave me his helmet. Dream, Bad, and Fundy are with me and listening.”

He kept his summary succinct. “Emergency. Enderman approaching camp from the south-southwest. It’s not attacking me, but I’m going to draw it away and I need backup.”

Phil inhaled sharply. “Oh f-” he could hear the BadBoyHalo glare through the radio- “fudge,” he corrected. “ETA?”

“Best guess seven minutes. I’ve got to act now or it’ll ignore me and keep going for the caravan.”

“You’ll get torn to shreds!”

“I’ve fought one before, I can hold my own for a few minutes.” He left out that he’d been with a full complement of half a dozen other droids at the time. He couldn’t afford to lose the seconds it would take to convince Phil to let him do this otherwise. “Just get out here fast,” he added, “and bring the laser cannon from wagon four.”

He heard a muffled “Yes!” from Tommy, followed by rapid footsteps as he presumably ran to get Sapnap, who was in charge of the overpowered wheeled monstrosity. It would do more damage to the Enderman than a blaster ever could. 

“How many people should I bring?”

“Everyone on the team except Fundy, Bad, George, and Tubbo. Fundy, Bad, guard the camp while they’re gone. Phil, make sure Niki has her old-fashioned rifle, I know she brought it. I don’t care if it’s illegal, bullets will be better than pulser blasts. Defenders and attackers should pair off, two to a speeder. Dream’s fine alone. Fundy, give everyone the bare-bones monster run-down before they leave, but get out here as fast as humanly possible.”

He glanced up again. The enderman was three yards closer to camp. He started edging nearer to it, moving away from the camp at the same time. “I’m closing in now. South-southwest.” He released the button and braced himself, reaching up to unhook his helmet.

“Be safe,” Phil said as he carefully lifted it off and dropped it to the ground so his eyes were exposed, flicking the switch on his arm and shivering as his blaster and sword twisted into existence. The wind whipped against his face and tore through his pulled-back hair, dust burning against his skin. 

_~~You won’t win this, leave them to die.~~ _

“No,” he said aloud. He widened his stance and raised his volume. “Ey, blockhead!” he yelled. 

The Enderman froze, head whipping around. He met its eyes, all the fear forced out of his gaze and determination piercing through the dust storm. 

The change was immediate. The glow in the monster’s violet eyes roared up into a fire as its instincts cast aside his inhuman nature and hyper-focused on the fact that he was _looking_ at it and he _should not be doing that._

It raised its arms and charged towards him, jaw unhinging and exposing the six wickedly sharp fangs in its mouth as an ungodly, broken, lawnmower noise of displeasure roared out of its throat. He danced backwards, maintaining eye contact and hoping it didn’t have the speed to outrun him. 

The roar changed to a snarling, bubbling hiss as it got closer, eyes widening in fury when he still refused to look away. The amethyst sparks raining from its arms and legs made the air around it look like a demonic meteor shower as it threw its balled fists above its head and exploded in a burst of purple light. 

Techno yelled in shock as it reappeared with a bang behind him. He dove to the side just in time to avoid the monster’s fists as they swung down in a devastating arc, rolling back to his feet as he reeled from the revelation. It had teleported more than twenty-five feet, _way_ more powerful than the one he’d fought before.

That meant the biggest and only advantage he had over the Enderman was his agility. The monster was fast on its feet and way bigger but couldn’t change directions as quickly as he could. If he could keep out of its reach, he could hold out until the rescue party arrived. He darted to the left, putting more distance between him and the camp as he tried to lead it farther away. It was working, the creature was concentrating fully on taking him out.

This also came with downsides. The Enderman shrieked in anger and barreled towards him, winding its fists back for another attempt to crush him like a bug. He sprinted in a different direction, then skidded to a halt and bolted to the right when he heard the boom of another teleport. Relief flooded his senses when he heard the monster’s fists slam into the ground where he would’ve been if he hadn’t.

It screamed in frustration as he continued to avoid it, zig-zagging across the sand and leading it deeper into the desert. He cautiously started going on the offensive, firing blaster shots over his shoulder whenever he saw the opportunity. Every one that connected with his target erupted in a hail of violet particles and left behind a glowing burn mark that made its skin look like a patchwork of sparklers. He kept his ears open for signs of his team, but the only sound he could hear was the hornet’s nest of buzzing pouring from the Enderman’s mouth. 

The monster teleported again, and he avoided the strike by a hair’s breadth, jumping backwards as the huge fists crushed the ground at his feet. He raced off, desperately dashing back and forth in what he hoped was an unpredictable pattern. He could hear it running up behind him, so he aimed backwards and fired blindly to throw it off. None of the shots hit, but it gave him a few seconds to gain ground. 

He cried out as it slammed into existence right in front of him, narrowly avoiding crashing into its chest as he spun on his heel and leapt out of the way just in the nick of time. He’d been incredibly lucky so far, but he couldn’t keep this up for much longer, he was going to trip up eventually. The rescue team needed to get here _now._

He risked looking away from his enemy for long enough to scan the surrounding area, and to his immense relief he spotted the blue glow of speeders coming in fast, their riders vague silhouettes through the dust. He caught a glimpse of a blazing golden trail above them, undoubtedly Dream with his jetpack.

The air crackled with energy beside him and he realized he’d let his attention stray for too long. He threw himself backwards as the monster’s left arm hurtled down past his nose, but he didn’t account for the right fist, swinging at him from behind.

The blow collided with his back plate with enough force to pulverize a watermelon. His vision scattered into splintered stars as the creature’s arm propelled him forward and flung him bodily into the dirt several feet away. He tried to tuck himself into a roll but only got halfway there, skidding awkwardly through the sand and forcing himself to stumble back to his feet.

Pain sizzled like lightning through his torso and he fought to keep the agony off his face as the Enderman howled triumphantly, the sound distorted and terrible. He heard a cry of alarm from somewhere behind him and to the left, but he didn’t have time to look back and see who it was. 

The monster stormed towards him with horrifying speed, arms raised above its head and poised for another strike. He shook off as much of the pain as he could and rushed forwards and to the left, shooting it in the chest with his blaster and letting it barge straight past him like a charging bull as he tried to head for the approaching hovercraft. 

The Enderman teleported into the space in front of him and this time he couldn’t stop himself soon enough, ramming straight into the monster and bouncing off with a yell. He dropped to the ground as a fist whistled over his head, scrambling to the side as the second one tried to crush his skull. 

His vision was still a little cracked around the edges and his dented back was throbbing. He was slowing down. It was now or never for the rescue team.

They picked now. Dream soared into the fight in a trail of fiery glory, dive bombing the Enderman from above with both blasters drawn and his eyes covered by a one-way shield over top of his helmet. It screeched in pain and tried to smack him out of the air, but he was already gone, thirty feet up and preparing for another attack. 

The first speeder zipped into blasting range and started firing, Skeppy steered them into a steeply banked turn around the scene while Schlatt pumped large pulses at the monster from the backseat. A gunshot rang out as Phil and Niki arrived and pulled to a stop, bike jolting from the recoil of her rifle. The Enderman wailed in discordant agony and disappeared in a flash.

“Techno, roll right!” Phil yelled in warning. He did, wincing as the monster’s arms slammed down where he’d been. He raised his left hand and fired point-blank into the monster’s leg, burning a fresh mark into the skin. Groaning painfully, he heaved himself to his feet and ran towards Phil’s speeder before it could wind up for another blow, keeping out of Niki’s line of fire as she tried to aim at the creature behind him.

“Where’s the cannon?” he called.

“Almost here, it’s slower than the jet bikes. Get behind us.”

Techno wasted no time taking cover around the other side of the speeder, kneeling down so he was out of the monster’s sight. “This one’s got a teleportin’ range of at least twenty-five feet with about eight seconds in between, it’s hard to count.”

“Good to know.”

The Enderman, infuriated beyond belief and covered with burns and one bullet wound, burst into another teleport and attempted to unseat Skeppy. The pilot wheeled around in a hairpin turn with his head tucked low and Schlatt leaning into him so he didn’t fly off the back, narrowly missing the swinging arm. Niki adjusted her aim and fired before it could move again, hitting it square in the shoulder with a spray of oily blood. Techno had never been so glad to have a technically outlawed weapon on their side. 

Dream swept into a neat dive and nailed the creature twice in the head before it could dodge, unfortunately missing its eyes but momentarily blinding it with its own purple sparks. The horrid droning sound doubled in volume as it swung wildly in his direction, missing by a mile as he maneuvered out of the way with the nimbleness of a dragonfly.

Techno pulled himself back to his feet, swiping his tangled hair out of his face where it had come out of its ponytail as he readied his sword arm. He could try and get in close now that he had someone watching his back and the monster had other things splitting its attention. He blocked out the pain in his ribs the best he could and warned Niki he was moving, then darted around the speeder’s front bumper and rushed towards the Enderman.

It was currently occupied in warding off another attack from Dream and didn’t see him until he was too close to avoid. He stabbed his blade into its stomach and wrenched it out just as fast, jumping back out of walloping range as it wailed in distress, blood leaking sluggishly from the wound. 

Niki and Schlatt both fired into its chest as it was trying to recover, and it stumbled back a step, overwhelmed. It screamed in an achingly high register and vanished with a clap of sparks.

Everyone immediately glanced around them, but it was out of sight.

“We have to find it! It might head for the camp!” Phil directed urgently. 

Dream shot up into the sky, scanning for tell-tale purple lights, Skeppy sped off towards the caravan in case it had gone that direction, and Phil started an ever increasing loop expanding out into the desert. A minute later, Sapnap and Antfrost arrived on the scene with the laser cannon and promptly joined the search, the clunky, hulking beast of a hovercraft crawling after Phil.

Techno ran after Skeppy and Schlatt, moving a touch more clumsily than he normally would but still gaining ground on the speeder, which was sweeping back and forth in a searching motion while he was traveling in a straight line. He was continually scanning for any moving shapes, but without his helmet it was hard to see much of anything through the dust flying into his face. It didn’t help that the sun had set fully now, and everything was shrouded in inky darkness. 

“Any sign of it?” he called forward.

“Whole lotta nothin’,” Schlatt yelled back.

_~~Not gonna stay that way.~~ _

_Ey, welcome back. Thanks for clearin’ out during the battle._

_~~I’m supposed to fight. We’re a battle droid, I’m not gonna bug you if we’re doing what we’re meant to.~~ _

_You’re meant to fight, I’m meant to protect. Get it right,_ he thought harshly, disliking the reminder of the past.

“I’m gonna radio Tommy again and tell him to warn the lookouts,” he shouted to the pair ahead of him.

“Sounds good,” Schlatt replied.

He flicked a switch and transformed his sword arm back into a hand, then pressed his intercom. “Hullo, come in, anybody there?”

“Hey, Big Man, got a whacking great monster corpse you need me’n Tubbo to drag back?”

“It’s not dead yet, we’re lookin’ for it. Go tell whoever’s at the gates to make sure they’re watchin’ for it, then sit with one of them so you can tell us along with Phil if they see it.”

_~~You need better communication methods than one dad with a radio.~~ _

_One dad and one brother, at least._

“You’re sounding a bit windy there, Blade, where’s your helmet?”

“Tell’ya la-” He broke off with a yelp as the Enderman exploded into being three feet to his left with a shower of violet, arm already swinging towards him and hissing in rage. He had only a split second to react. 

He wasn’t fast enough.

The fist smashed into his upper chest plate with savage strength, launching him off his feet for the second time that night. His shoulders hit the ground first, his skull cracked against the hard packed dirt, and the rest of his body followed, leaving him dazed and stunned. His chest was on fire and his head was swimming in a haze of pain and dizziness. He tried to pull together some semblance of coherent thought and could only manage to give his body one directive: scream. 

It was long, and it was loud. He didn’t think he’d ever screamed like that before. He wasn’t sure it was a voluntary decision to make that noise.

“-echno, where’d you go? You went silent, did the connection cut out?” Tommy asked, a note of nerves entering his voice.

He couldn’t raise his arm to activate the radio link again, it hurt too much to move and his body wasn’t responding properly. Something major had gotten damaged with that second hit.

The Enderman towered over him, drawing back its arm for another strike.

_~~**Get up get up get up MOVE** ~~ _

Somehow he mustered enough strength to roll to the side far enough that the blow only scraped his back, the dented metal screeching in protest as the ends of the armored panels popped screws and started to lift up. 

_~~**Get yourself away you’re dead so dead stupid nervous system MOVE OVER AND LET ME DRIVE--** ~~ _

His body lurched, but he wasn’t the one moving it. He staggered up and half-ran, half-tripped away from his attacker, limbs moving under a power that wasn’t his own. White-hot agony ripped through him with every step, but he couldn’t stop.

The Enderman snarled fiercely behind him, and he turned to see Skeppy hurtling towards them at full speed, Schlatt leaning on his shoulder and peppering the monster’s back with blaster shots. The monster turned to deal with this new target, and Techno crumpled in relief, energy absolutely spent. The thing controlling his body had enough effort left to press a shaking finger to the button by his neck and pull up a glitchy satellite map with his coordinates on it.

_~~**Speak.** ~~ _

So he did, shoving the pain away from the front of his mind and fighting his malfunctioning voice box. “T-t-tommy.”

“You’re back! I thought you’d-”

Techno cut him off. “We fo-found it, get Phil and Sap-sap-sapnap here right now.” He forced through the stuttering and gave his coordinates, then repeated them a second time while Tommy raced through camp to the front gate. “Skep-pep-pepy and Schlatt have it at b-bay, but that’s not-t-t gonna last.”

“Are you okay? Your voice-”

“Focus, T-tommy.”

“Okay, yeah, sorry man, just-” he went quiet, and Techno assumed he’d reached the gate and was relaying the coordinates. A minute later, he clicked back on. “They’re on their way. What happened, are you good?”

“No,” Techno responded fervently, “b-but I’ll be okay. I’ve got-got-gotta go.” His arm was a deadweight he was barely holding up.

“You better come home or I swear-”

“I’ll c-come home,” His finger was slipping. “See you soon, k-kid.”

“I’m not a kid,” Tommy protested automatically. “See you soon.”

The force released his limbs, his arm flopping limply to the ground as he lay helpless, drowning in pain.

_~~Useless humanity.~~ _

_Thank you._

_~~If you die, I do too. Perform a systems check, you moron.~~ _

He mentally nodded and completed a full-body check-up, unable to do much else. His battery was just under half full, but movement was not an option. The pain was centered on his chest and back but also trailed out into his arms and legs, which were locked in place. His hearing was fine, clearly picking up roars from the Enderman behind him, but his vision was spotty and blurred. He couldn’t tell how much internal damage he’d sustained, but it had to be significant if he was unable to move on his own.

A low drone reached his ears and he tried and failed to look over towards the sound. It came to a stop almost overhead, somewhere to the left.

“Techno! What happened?” Dream called down, every word louder as he swooped into a landing behind him.

“H-help them, n-not me,” he got out. His statement was punctured by another gargled scream from the Enderman. 

Dream walked into his fuzzy field of view and knelt down, hesitantly reaching out but stopping short of his body. His hand was shaking slightly. “I don’t know how- Your chest- What do I even…”

“La-later,” Techno directed firmly. “Go.”

His friend reluctantly got back to his feet. “You’d better not die on me before I knock this thing’s block off,” he said.

“ _Now._ ”

Dream gave him one last worried look and fired up his jetpack, zooming off to help Skeppy and Schlatt with his blasters in hand.

_~~You better hope he’s back fast,~~_ the voice warned. _~~You’re in serious condition.~~_

_I can hold on._

_~~Can you?~~ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You may notice Ranboo is now tagged. ;) No, he's not an ender hybrid, but he's still great.
> 
> Battle scenes are flippin' DIFFICULT you guys
> 
> I was sitting in my room at 2 am asking myself what would happen if I hooked a 90 lb basketball to a rope and slammed it into the hood of a car. What pastime besides writing results in questions like that. I love it.

**Author's Note:**

> Next chapter in a couple days, whenever I can get it finished. 
> 
> the comments, they fEeD mE please provide sustenance


End file.
